Mike Elko admits Texas A&M fans stress Texas rivalry to him over anything else

In his first season at Texas A&M, head coach Mike Elko is going to be the first coach to deal with rival Texas since 2011. It’s a game that means a lot to both the SEC title race and football fans around the state of Texas.

Ahead of the game, Elko was asked if there was anything that fans and supporters have asked more about than the Texas game and his answer was simple.

“No,” Mike Elko said. “Not even a little bit. Yeah, this means a lot.”

The last time Texas and Texas A&M played was in 2011. It was a close 27-25 point win for the Longhorns at Kyle Field. The coaches at the time of that game had been Mike Sherman for Texas A&M and Mack Brown for Texas. At the time, the series was ending because the Aggies were leaving for the SEC and, up until the Longhorns joined the SEC ahead of the 2024 season, the two sides were unable to agree on reigniting the series.

Now that game week is here, Mike Elko is excited for the talk to stop and the game to actually be played in front of what he expects to be an electric atmosphere.

“I think just, in general, and I’ve said this from day one, when you have two programs as large as these two programs are as close to each other as they are, it doesn’t make a ton of sense for them not to play. So, it always felt weird not playing,” Elko said. “And so now, to be playing and to be playing for what we’re playing for? Yeah, I’d imagine will be pretty electric Saturday.”

Texas and Texas A&M first played in 1894. In 1902, the Aggies would earn their first win over the Longhorns, though Texas does have the all-time series lead with a record of 76-37-5 over Texas A&M. The best run of success for the Aggies was from 1984 through 1994 when Texas A&M won 10 out of 11 games.

This season, there is plenty on the line for both sides. At 6-1 in SEC play, Texas is first in the conference. Texas A&M, at 5-2 is in third behind 6-2 Georgia, who has a non-conference game to finish the season. Georgia has the tiebreaker over Texas already. So, if the Aggies win, they’ll knock the Longhorns out of the SEC Championship Game and play the Bulldogs instead.

Kickoff for Texas A&M and Texas is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, November 30th.